How long is your typical workday?

eleonorang

Being a freelance very rarely means being "free" from tasks and duties and loafing about the house or the city. Some people leave their 9-to-5 job because they expect to have more spare time and work fewer hours a day, but sometimes they get disappointed because being self-employed implies taking care of so many things besides work itself (in our case, translation).
How long is your typical working day, i.e. how many hours do you manage to work in total? Are you satisfied with this schedule or do you aim to reduce that amount in time (possibly by increasing your hourly rate)?

Dmitry

eleonorang Some people leave their 9-to-5 job because they expect to have more spare time

Those poor souls... they're in for a very rude awakening, haha

I normally start working at around 8:30-9:00 am and spend first few hours on admin tasks and answering emails (as well as accounting if I have new projects).

They I'd normally proceed to projects at hand starting with the most urgent ones first.

I'd say my regular day varies, but I believe I log at least 6-7 hours of non-stop work very day. If I'm on a tough deadline, it'll be more, but I generally try to avoid putting myself in situations where I have work all day long. It's bad for your health, you know.

aaronhemmers

eleonorang I completely agree with you. In fact, sometimes I miss my 9-5 job where I could socialize with more than 50 people. Having said that, there are always benefits of working freelance and being your own boss. Currently I am working more than 40 hours a week and my client is pushing me to dedicate more time.

izabelcka

Honestly, each day can vary for me. I work in blocks of 2 hours generally speaking. So 2 hours of work followed by a little break, then back to work.

eleonorang

Hey, izabelcka, I try to fit in regular breaks too, but do you have a set time span for working every day or do you go on until you drop? How many hours in total do you work?

I try to spend 8 hours MAX. on my PC unless it's a matter of life and death, inserting regular breaks (every 1 hour or so) and making a 1-hour break for lunch. If they can wait, I prefer leaving admin tasks to the afternoon/evening, because I'm far more productive in the morning and I prefer to spend that productivity on translation and editing tasks.

cariobana

Well, I actually believe each client is a boss. But I can control my time. I prefer to work at night, after 11 pm. No one disturbs me and I can pack 5 straight hours. Love it! But my typical day starts at 7:30; emails, quotes, social media; 10 am or so, breakfast and sometimes a walk or tend my orchids. Then I put in another 4-5 hours in the afternoon, early evening. That's a typical day. If I have a rush project, I might have dinner with the family; watch a movie then start working around 11 - everyone goes to sleep and there are no annoying telemarketing calls!

eleonorang

cariobanaJenniferODonnell Thanks for sharing your routines with us
Gio, you're so right, sometimes I think I should begin working at night too because sometimes the incoming emails and messages can become just too much! But then I remember that by 6 pm my brain cells are ready for the happy hour and go MIA, and I just never do it I work so much better in the morning, just like Jennifer!

JenniferODonnell I liked having a 9-5 job but that was mostly because of the human interaction part

I miss that too, so it's nice to have a few colleagues you can reach quickly on Skype when the loneliness is overwhelming!

JenniferODonnell

I work better in the mornings so I try to work from 8am to 5/6pm, getting the bulk of my translating done before 12pm. (If I can I try to go running at about 7/7:30am before work)

I keep track of how much time I'm spending on a job with Toggl. I find it helps keep me on track and I can see how many hours I've translated, replied to emails, done financing etc each day. I make sure to take plenty of sensible breaks so I don't burn myself out either.

I liked having a 9-5 job but that was mostly because of the human interaction part. I like the freedom of working on my own projects. Just need to remember to get out of the house every now and then.

ninagruenewald

Hello! This is a very interesting topic to talk about I wondered how other translators worked!!

I am pretty much a beginner only but I find that I need very strict routines. But since i am working for myself, I wanna see that those routines are all as pleasurable as possible

I try to get up at 0630, run at 7 for a few k, do a tiny bit of yoga and meditation to start the day. And I love it. Te prep some tea and off to work I do it like some others here, I try to do the most important bulk translation work in the morning before 12. When translating, I need a break every hour or 1,5h, to breath, look up in the sky walk around a bit. Around lunch time I take 40-60 mins to really refresh, cook, do laundry, whatevs. In the afternoon it is more chaotic. I get sucked up with reading or organising things, seasoned with the occasional doubt about everything Sometimes, I go for a walk and listen to some podcasts on translation... and sometimes I end up working until 7pm. i find that a bit long for one day although I mostly enjoy it. I am still pretty shy about finding clients which doesnt help. Haha. But I try to NOT work in the weekend. Maybe just some reading, but mainly refresh

I have no programme yet to track my work, but I am extremely meticulous about writing down every minute I work and what I did in that time in an excel sheet.

coveredweb

It depends on the day. Some days are long and some are short. But I usually start translating only after lunch.

linguistceviri

I took an on-line course in Open University which is about translation as a career. One of the lessons over the whole content was about samples of the life of some translators. OU had assembled some accounts from a range of profeessional translators. I would like to share one of them to give all of us an idea about work-life balance and how they pattern their life.

The following text is quoted from the content of "Translation as a Career" course in Open University.

"When I sit down in the morning, generally it almost never happens that I don’t have a job on, but the first thing I do is check through my emails, and if I’m looking for work, then I’ll go straight to that, see what’s coming up, if there’s anything I can bid for, or answer any queries. Then I will get down to whatever it is I’m doing that day, and work steadily. As I’m working I can see emails coming in. I will always check my emails coming in, unless I’m doing a proofreading job, which I’m doing on a timed basis, in which case I won’t check emails because it’s not fair to the client. If something interesting comes up, then I’ll stop working and I’ll go after that job and put in a bid, or write to the project manager saying that I can do the job and negotiate the rate. That’s where you’re multitasking, because you are doing a translation, but you keep switching over to set up your next jobs. I generally work from about 8:45 am until midday. By a quarter past twelve I’m ravenously hungry. Quite often I just have half an hour for lunch and then get back to work. Work-life balance is very important so on Tuesdays and Fridays I walk to the leisure centre and I swim for half an hour. On Thursdays I walk with Casterbridge Ramblers, so I’ll do a seven or eight miles walk on a Thursday. And then I’ve got my personal trainer. She pops up on my computer screen every hour and gives me three simple exercises. As well as keeping my metabolic rate up, if I’ve been concentrating very hard, I can move around, do the exercises, it just takes three minutes, and it refreshes me. I generally stop around five to cook supper, and then if I’m not up against a deadline, I’ll just do other stuff in the evening. If I’m up against a deadline, I’ll get back to work after supper. I never work weekends, unless it’s doing voluntary things like for the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign, if they’ve sent me something I’ll do it but that’s not work… I try to save weekends for family time. I do my invoicing generally on a Friday after I’ve stopped working. It makes you feel good, thinking ‘I’ve earned all this money!’ even though it’s such a tedious task."

ninagruenewald

linguistceviri I took an on-line course in Open University which is about translation as a career.

That sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing that! Would you recommend it, have you completed it? I will check it out!
I agree, a good work-life balance is so important and it is, I guess, one of the reasons why we chose this profession!

annagiuliam

linguistceviri And then I’ve got my personal trainer. She pops up on my computer screen every hour and gives me three simple exercises. As well as keeping my metabolic rate up, if I’ve been concentrating very hard, I can move around, do the exercises, it just takes three minutes, and it refreshes me.

I like this! I wonder which app it is?

linguistceviri

Hi Nina (I guess that is your name),
Yes I completed the course which is under a free course category. Taking this course is very simple. You just have to enter the web site of Open University (OU) and register. Later on you can go for any course you want. OU has a bunch of courses in different areas, language category is one of them. Many courses are free as it was the one I took. You can choose any one you like and take on-line. I strongly recommend that you should try one of these courses. Translation as a carreer course has really different subjects and I got maximum benefit from it. I am sure you will like it. Good luck.
Sertaç.

eleonorang

linguistceviri It's amazing how many things you can learn that you never even thought you needed to Thanks for mentioning that course, I'll go and check it out